Flower structure



(No Model.)

J.A.DEARBORN.

FLOWER STRUCTURE.

No 440.141. Patented Nov. 11-, 1890.

3140a wtoz UNITE STATES JOHN A. DEARBORN, OF KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI.

FLOWER STRUCTURE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. d40,141, dated November 11, 1890.

Application filed January 28, 1890. Serial No. 338,355. (No model.)

.To all whom, it may concern.-

Be it known that 1, JOHN A. DEARBORN, a citizen of the United States, residing at Kansas City, in the county of Jackson and State of Missouri, have invented a new and useful Flower Structure, of which the following is a specification.

This invention is designed for and adapted to the culture and display of flowering plants, and is specifically styled florum.

It consists of the details of construction and relative arrangement of parts, hereinafter set forth.

The ultimate and highest end of the cultivation of flowers is to minister pleasure to the mind; to gratify the aesthetic element of the mind, its love of the beautiful, through the medium of sight resting on flower-bloom in the midst of its foliage surroundings. The attainment of that object in the highest degree is dependent upon the culture, growth, and artistic display of the blooming plantculture in order to vigorous growth, vigorous growth in order to the production of the finest bloom, and artistic display in order to present the flowers before the eyes of the beholder in such attitudes as will give the most pleasing effect. Not all forms of presentation or arrangement of flowers make an equally good display. The almost universal display of groups of flowers is in beds and on the plane of the surface of the earth. Such objects are always more or less beautiful and pleasing; but however large such beds, and however varied in kind and species and colormarkings the flowers composing them may be, the one thing they need, in order to their greatest beauty and most pleasing effect, is what in sculpture is known as higher relief that is, distinctiveness of outline to groups as units and, as far as possible, to individual flowers in the groups.

In the accompanying drawings, Figures 1, 2, and 3 are respectively diagrammatic plan views of my device in pentagonal, square, and combined hexagonal and triangular forms. Fig. 4 is a side elevation of the pentagonal form when set up. Fig. 5 isa central vertical section.

In order to set forth the construction, uses, and advantages of my invention for the purposes mentioned, I will take one of the above drawings as the representative of all. It consists, when made of wood, of a series of frames so graded in diameter from the first or lowest one to the last or highest as that the second frame shall come snugly within the first, the third within the second, and so on to the top most one in the series. The relative arrangement of the frames when set up is this: The angle-points V of each inside frame are to be placed at the centers O of the sides of the corresponding outside frame, thus alternating sides and angles from bottom to top of the series. The first or bottom frame is to rest on the solid ground and to be adjusted to a level, and each succeeding frame on fixed cleats or blocks of wood K, securely nailed on the inside surface of the sides of its corresponding outside frame-one cleat to each angle-pointthus giving a downward bearing or pressure and making avery substantial structure. The cleats Kare to be attached at such adistance below the top surface of the sides as that when the frames are placed upon them there shall be a regular rise-say of six inchesin the level of the second frame above that of the first, and of the third above that of the second, and so on to the last or topmost frame, thus giving a .pyramidal outline form to the structure, with its sides strikingly diversified by an alternation of sides and angles.

The material of which the frames are made should be uniform in width-say from eight to twelve inches-so as to secure the regular consecutive rises mentioned above, except that of which the first frame is made, which, as it is to rest on the ground, need not be over six inches wide. Sound judgment and taste require that the thickness of the material be graded, the first frame beingthe thickest and the others gradually diminishing up to or nearly to the topmost frame.

After the frames are all set in their proper places the skeleton of the fiorumis complete. It is then to be filled with such earth or soil as is suitable to the growth of flowers, and the angular spaces are the places for the planting of flowersthose of shorter habit of growth on the lower tiers of angles, and those of taller growth on the higher tiers.

In the center of the ground-space occupied by the florum a post P is to be set, the surface of the upper end of which is preferably all over, in order to retard the progress of decay, and the surfaces that are visible to the eye of the beholder may be painted in imitation of any desired stone color. Thus treated the frames will last for years and be very sightly.

The frames may be made of any desired size, compass, or height, the dimensions being dependent on, first, the diameter of the circle on which the fiorum is constructed, and, second, on the height of the surface of one'grade or tier above another, which height will be determined, first, by the width of the material of which the frames are made, and, second, the depth to which each frame is set on its cleats K below the surface of its corresponding outside frame. By doubling the diameter and retaining the same height of rises the planting capacity will be doubled.

The florum is adaptable to all sizes of yards, from the small plat of the comparatively poor to the spacious yards and lawns of the rich and to the still more spacious grounds of public gardens and parks.

Having described my invention, what I claim is 1. A flower structure consisting of a series of. independently-removable angular openended frames gradually decreasing in size from the bottom upward to the desired height, said frames being supported one upon another at their angles by means substantially as described and being adapted to be filled with earth, in the manner and for the purpose set forth. 7

2. A flower structure consisting of a number of angular open frames of graduated size adapted to be filled with earth, the frames comprising side pieces joined at their ends, and the opposite sides being parallel, the latter having blocks at the center of their inner faces below the upper edges thereof, supporting the angles of the frames next smaller in size when the structure is set up, as and for the purpose described.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing as my own I have hereto affixed my signature in presence of two Witnesses.

JOHN A. DEARBORN.

Witnesses:

ANDREW DUGGAN, J. B. RUSSELL. 

